* * * *

[Illustration: "THE PLAY'S THE THING!"

"COULD I HAVE A FORTNIGHT'S LEAVE, SIR?" "WHAT FOR, PRAY?" "URGENT
PRIVATE THEATRICALS!"]

* * * * *

THE FISHERMAN AND THE GENIUS.

(_Fragmentary and Unfinished Extracts from the Arabian Nights, Up to
Date._)

"Sir," said SHEEVERREADY, "how pleasant soever these stories may be that
I have told your Majesty hitherto, they do not come near that of the
Fisherman and the Genius."

* * *

There was an ancient, but hale and opulent Fisherman, who had fished with
much success for many a day in troubled waters. This practice of his
involved him, of course, in extremely arduous labours, but resulted,
generally, in securing him a fair share of hard-earned spoil, to the
great envy of other fishermen of less hardihood and enterprise. He
imposed it upon himself, however, as a law, not to cast his nets save
during a certain season--or session, as he called it--which usually
arrived but once a year.

His fortune, for some fishing seasons past, had been of a variable, and
not too satisfactory sort. It is _not_ encouraging, after casting one's
nets during a prolonged spell of rough weather, and confidently
anticipating a good draught of fish, to perceive that, instead of fish,
there is nothing in one's net save such unsought spoil as the carcase of
an Egyptian ass, a basket-full of gravel and slime of no substantial
utility, or quantities of stones and mud, fit for nothing but for use as
missiles among quarrelsome boys.

"O Fortune," cried he; "be not so persistently perverse, nor persecute an
ancient fisherman who groweth a-weary of tumultuous billows, turbid
floods, broken and filth-obstructed nets, and unprofitable hauls!"

* * *

Now, behold, it was told to this Fisherman by a certain Grand Old Voice,
vague but sonorous, and voluble exceedingly, that if he would only make a
complete change in his nets, and in the fashion of his fishing,
miraculous draughts would become as common as minnows in a brook. This
Voice visited our Fisherman often in his visions. And, behold, the
Fisherman essayed the schemes suggested by the Voice. Not at first, it
must be admitted, with supreme success, or entire satisfaction to the
Fisherman himself. The Voice, however, attributed this qualified fortune
to the Fisherman's lack of perfect trust, and of entire reform in his
fashion of fishing. "Behold,"